Military History Photo Friday: The L3/35 Tankette

I was digging through some old photos the other day and came across this one of yours truly at a military museum in Rome. I'm standing beside an Italian L3/35 tankette. Tankettes were a popular idea for some nations in the Interwar period. As the name implies, they were miniature tanks, smaller and faster than the behemoths of the First World War.

The L3/35 was first mass produced in 1936 and measured 3.17 x 1.4 x 1.3 m (10.4 × 4.59 × 4.27 ft). It had a top speed of 42 km/h (26 mph), weighed 3.2 tons, and had a crew of two--a driver and gunner. Armament was a pair of machine guns. At its thickest, the armor was only 12 mm (.47 inches).

The tankette served in the Italian invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and large numbers of them were sent to help the fascists during the Spanish Civil War. Their thin armor made them vulnerable, and having the guns fixed to the front meant the tankette had to be turned to bring the weapons to bear. Abyssinian warriors would rush up behind the tank and stuck their swords into the tracks, which was often enough to disable them! In the Spanish Civil War they had to face tanks sent to the Republican army by the Soviet Union like the BT-5 and T-26. These were real tanks with cannons and turrets and everything. You can guess how well the little Italian models fared.

By World War Two, the L3/35 was obsolete, but that didn't stop the Italians from fielding large numbers of them in North Africa. The British made short work of them. It's amazing any survived to end up in this museum!

Book Review: Hitler's Home Guard: Volkssturmmann: Western Front, 1944-45

Hitler's Home Guard: Volkssturmmann: Western Front, 1944-45 by David Yelton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Full disclosure: I have written seven books for Osprey Publishing so I can't really be called an unbiased reviewer. On the other hand, I don't know the author or artist and WW2 is a bit out of my specialty. I read this as research for a novel I'm writing.
This is a look at a little-covered aspect of the war, Germany's desperate formation of a militia to supplement the exhausted and depleted Wehrmacht. These teenagers, old men, and men taken from essential services were given little training, insufficient weapons, and were sent against the full force of the Allied assaults in late 1944 and early 1945. No prizes for figuring out what happened.
The author goes through the formation of the Volkssturm, and how individuals were recruited and trained, using a fictional character in a real unit as an example. Other reviewers have criticized using a fictional character, but given the paucity of sources for the Volkssturm I didn't see this as a problem. One limitation, however, is that it only covers the Western Front. The author notes that the Volkssturm on the Eastern Front were better armed and motivated, and I was hoping that a second book would be written about their story. Since it's been 10 years since this book's publication I guess that's not going to happen.
Another missed opportunity is that the Volksgewehr, a series of cheap gun designs introduced late in the war, are not really described. There isn't much written on these guns and it would have been appropriate to add something here.
Despite these shortcomings, I found this book a gripping read. It goes into detail about the civilian experience and the terror these half-soldiers must have felt when a helmet was plunked on their head, a rifle thrust into their hands, and they were sent against thundering columns of tanks. A large section is dedicated to the process of surrendering, internment, and repatriation. That was the main war experience for a lot of these guys!
All in all, a good overview of a little-known aspect of the war.

View all my reviews

Book Review: US Infantryman vs German Infantryman: European Theater of Operations 1944

US Infantryman vs German Infantryman: European Theater of Operations 1944 by Steven J. Zaloga
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Full disclosure: I have written seven books for Osprey Publishing so I can't really be called an unbiased reviewer. On the other hand, I don't know the author or artist and WW2 is a bit out of my specialty. I read this as research for a novel I'm ghostwriting for a client.
This is part of Osprey's Combat series, a grunt's eye view of the fight between two opposing sides. Each book looks at the training, equipment, and motivation of a regular soldier on both sides of the battle, with three small-scale fights to illustrate what their experience was like.
I found the detail in this book quite good, and especially appreciated the information on radio communications, something that many authors overlook. The text gives the reader a brief but detailed look at how units were trained, organized, and deployed. The three combat situations were well chosen and clearly illustrate the German army's deteriorating situation in the last half of 1944, as well as the US Army's steep learning curve.
The art is up to Osprey's usual high standard and the maps were clear and easy to read.
My only quibbles were that the text was a bit dry at times and that we never get a good description of a pole charge, even though it is mentioned as an important weapon for taking out German bunkers. Of course I can imagine what a pole charge was, but a photo and some specs would seem appropriate here, especially considering the detailed coverage other weapons get.
All in all, a solid addition to the Combat series.

View all my reviews